Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Wiki:Article layout guideline
This page contains the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Wiki's . It describes content organization within articles, i.e. how articles should be structured as well as how standard content and sections should be named and ordered. *Policies set general rules for the wiki's administration and its content. *Any registered editor is free to edit this page to improve its readability as long as the essence of the article remains unchanged. *If you would like to suggest content changes or propose a new policy or guideline, please use the wiki discussion forum. *See the policies and guidelines page for an overview of this wiki's policies and guidelines. On structure One of the most important parts of wiki editing is how to structure an article. Structure dictates what information the reader reads and when he or she reads it. It can influence what people contribute, where they put it and how it is written. Good structure is likely to produce high quality articles. Organize sections in an article in a hierarchical structure like you would an outline. Try using a shallow structure rather than a deep one. Having too many nested sections usually leads to a confusing or unreadable article. Section order and naming The following is a short overview of the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Wiki article layouts. Its purpose is to provide a quick reference for order and naming of standard layout items. Note that all toplevel sections are h2 headings. Generic article * All articles should start with a lead section which is not more than a few sentences and two paragraphs. Its purpose is to provide a short definition or overview of the article itself; after reading it, a reader should know what the article is about. If possible, the article title should be the subject of the first sentence; alternative titles should be mentioned in the lead section as well. The lead should be generally kept spoiler-free. * ' ' should be used in every article. Without referencing, much of what is written on a page cannot be taken as legit, even if it is and can and will be removed. The reference section is a h2 heading and makes use of the template. Note: The reference section is mandatory, even if no in-line citations are currently used in the article! * At least one descriptive image if possible. The image has to be placed at the top right. See the image policy. * If additional sections are required in order to structure the article you may do so. When in doubt, discuss it on a case by case basis on the article talk page. Specific topic guidelines * Character article layout * Device article layout * Family article layout * Spell article layout * Media article layout Why to do Source Referencing? There are many reasons why it is important to reference information: * It proves the information is correct and not some fan speculation. * It allows others to look up the information themselves if they want to read further into the subject matter. * Conveniently this creates as side effect a list of appearances if the article is about a character and has a plot summary. Without referencing, much of what is written on a page cannot be taken as legit, even if it is, and can and will be removed! Valid sources The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Wiki recognizes following sources as valid: # The published anime series, mangas, video games, novels, and Sound Stages written by Masaki Tsuzuki. Various continuities take following precedence (in case of substantial discrepancies, the differences should be outlined in appropriate articles): ## Primary continuity ## Movie continuity ## Portable continuity ## Brave Duel continuity ## Original continuity ## Standalone installments # Supplemental material for the main installments (DVD booklets, artbooks, author's comments, [http://www.nanoha.com/ official Nanoha website], etc.). # [http://nanoha.julynet.jp/ Japanese Nanoha wiki]. It is considered sufficiently accurate to use its pages as references (except the ones marked as "Discussion" or "Speculation"). # Anime and manga websites like : for production details only. Invalid sources are: * Any fan-made materials (fansites, doujinshi, etc.). Reference rules Identical references should be combined. By combining identical references, it will help keep the pages clean and orderly. If you do not know how to do this, see . The name tag is important because if an identical reference will be used later in the article they will be combined. Never forget to add this tag! Citing anime series Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS episode 4 (12:34). Character: "Quote comes here." A proper anime citation should include: * The full title of the anime, italisized but not wikilinked. * The episode number, optionally padded with zeroes to two digits. * The time in in "minutes:seconds" format, if a specific scene is referenced. * A quote (in English, Japanese, or both), if appropriate. Citing manga Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force chapter 7, page 13. Character: "Quote comes here." A proper manga citation should include: * The full title of the manga, italisized but not wikilinked. * Optionally, the volume number. * The chapter number, optionally padded with zeroes to two digits. * The page number, if a specific scene is referenced. The page number can be hyperlinked to an online manga translation. * A quote (in English, Japanese, or both), if appropriate. Citing movies Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st (12:34). Character: "Quote comes here." A proper movie citation should include: * The full title of the movie, italisized but not wikilinked. * The time in in "minutes:seconds" format, if a specific scene is referenced. * A quote (in English, Japanese, or both), if appropriate. Citing Sound Stages Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS Sound Stage 2, track 4. Character: "Quote comes here." A proper Sound Stage citation should include: * The full title of the anime it belongs to, italisized but not wikilinked. * The number of the Sound Stage. * The disc number, if the Sound Stage spans several discs. * The track number, if a specific scene is referenced. * A quote (in English, Japanese, or both), if appropriate. * A link to an English translation of the Sound Stage. Citing video games Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces. Character: "Quote comes here." A proper video game citation should include: * The full title of the game, italisized but not wikilinked. * Optionally, additional information on the specific scene being references (route, path, ending, etc.). * A quote (in English, Japanese, or both), if appropriate. * A link to a transcript of the game translated into English. Citing webpages [http://nanoha.julynet.jp/?%CB%E2%CB%A1%2FStrikerS#t86327bb Mage ranks in StrikerS] on the Japanese Nanoha wiki. A proper webpage citation should include: * The URL of the page. The URL should be as precise as possible, i.e. linking to a particular page or even a section in it rather than the generic top-level domain. * Title of the page in English. * Publisher of the page in English. * A quote (in English, Japanese, or both), if appropriate.